Con Man Directed by Jesse Moss, 2003

Mesmerizing and provocative, CON MAN explores the remarkable life of James Arthur Hogue, a brilliant impostor who embraced the American art of self-invention, fabricated a spectacular series of fictional identities for himself, and successfully conned his way into Princeton University.

CON MAN begins with Hogue’s shocking arrest on the Princeton campus — where he’d earned a scholarship and a place on the track team — and then traces his life backwards to Palo Alto, where he pulled a similar scam at a suburban high school, and finally, to the humble streets of Kansas City, where he grew up.

Filmmaker Jesse Moss — a high school classmate — interviews the impostor’s close friends, college roommate, prison cellmate, and ultimately Hogue himself, who speaks on camera for the first time ever about his crimes. Moss also gained access to previously sealed police records, including Hogue’s fradulent Princeton application and an audio recording of Hogue’s police interrogation.

CON MAN is an intimate and disturbing profile of an elusive impostor who dared to outrun his past in pursuit of his own dark version of the American dream.